Wallingford Twitter was atwitter this past Saturday morning with news that there were fire trucks convergin on Perche No on N 49th by Stone Way. John pointed us towards Nancy Leson’s article in the Seattle Times with the grim story.
Turns out it was a kitchen fire, probably electrical, and they’ll be closed for up to a few months while they recover:
“It’s unbelievable,” says Lily, who recalled for me the hours leading up to the fire. She and her husband left the restaurant around 2 a.m. after a busy Friday night only to be awakened by a phone call from their alarm company around 5:45. “They said, `You’ve got a motion detector alarm going off.'” The Kongs thought it might be a wayward party balloon sounding the alarm (not for the first time) and considered heading back to the restaurant to check when the person monitoring the system said, “Your windows are cracking,” causing further bells and whistles on the computer at alarm-central. “That’s when we said, `Oh my God! Call 911 right now!'” Lily recalls. “By the time we got there, there were police cars and fire trucks blocking the street, and the minute they cracked the doors open, the smoke came flying out of the whole building, just shooting out every window.”
[…]Their insurance company will have to assess the restaurant themselves before putting a final figure on the damage, at which point the Kongs hope to quickly get the ball rolling on a kitchen rebuild. “I had to cancel a lot of parties. Birthdays, rehearsal dinners,” Lily says. “Fortunately my builder is around and he can help rebuild. At first I thought it would only be a couple of weeks until we reopen, and now we think it will be a month or more.” The sooner they reopen, the better she says. In this economy, “We don’t want to lose any more business than we have to.”
(Photo from the Seattle Times)
OT, but what’s with the new “Land Use” sign in front of the QFC? Looks like they’re expanding in a major way?
I wondered why Perche No was dark the other night when I drove past. I hope they can reopen soon! Nice investigative reporting, Wallyhood!
I hope they will take this opportunity to buy some new tablecloths.
charging $20+ for an entree and then serving it on those gross and raggedy tablecloths is ridiculous. I would have left if I hadn’t been so hungry. The food is fine, but the “ambiance” leaves much to be desired.